Proceedings of the FAO Expert Consultation
held in Bangkok, Thailand
7–11 July 1989

Edited byAndrew Speedy
and René Sansoucy

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M-26
ISBN 92-5-103029-4

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The FAO Expert Consultation on Feeding Dairy Cows in the Tropics
was held in Thailand in the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the
Pacific in Bangkok, from 3 to 7 July 1989.

Recent FAO statistics show that, while milking the same number of
cows (about 110 million head) the developing countries (mainly located
in the tropical zone) produce only 22 % of the whole fresh milk
equivalent produced by the developed countries and 18 % of the total
world production (461.5 million t). In addition, milk production in
Asia and to a lesser extent in Africa was reduced from 1986 to 1987
due to drought and the policy measures taken by some countries. In
spite of successful achievements such as “Operation Flood” in India,
many failures have also been observed in the past.

The problems encountered in stimulating milk production in
developing countries are very complex. As in other agricultural
development operations many difficulties such as pricing, marketing,
etc are beyond the control of the producer. However, technical
constraints including nutrition, health and breeding, have still to
be, and can be overcome.

Among these constraints the nutrition aspect is probably the
first factor limiting milk production. The 1987 Conference of FAO drew
attention to the increasing difficulty in providing the bulk of feed
requirements for cattle through grazing, crop by-products and to a
lesser extent, fodder crops.

Recent advances in the knowledge of ruminant nutrition physiology
and in the nutritive value and techniques of utilization of feed
resources including unconventional ones e.g. crop residues and agro-industrial
by-products, provide scope for overcoming the forecasted
feed shortage.

The purpose of this expert consultation therefore was to:

review the various milk production systems in the tropical
areas (humid and dry) according to agro-climatic and technical,
economical and sociological conditions including special
situations like peri-urban production systems;

review new knowledge in ruminant digestion nutrition and
physiology and consider ways and means of implementing rational
feeding systems that could overcome, at the lowest cost,
nutritional constraints which hamper milk production and herd
productivity in the various prevailing systems;

match milk production (specialized or dual purpose) systems to
available and potential feed resources, taking into account their
nutritional characteristics, and considering both subsistence and
commercial systems;

make recommendations for the development of sustainable milk
production systems based on locally available feed resources

The opening speech was delivered by Mr. Vitoon Kamnirdpeth,
Director General of the Department of Livestock Development, on behalf
of the Royal Government of Thailand. First of all he expressed his
government's appreciation to FAO for organizing this Expert
Consultation in Thailand, and welcomed all the participants. He
briefly reminded the Experts of the milk production history in
Thailand which started only 30 years ago and has developed rapidly
during the last ten years. Although milk production is increasing,
milk consumption per caput is still low and the Government is trying
to encourage the Thai population to consume more milk and milk
products. He pointed out that the main problems that the dairy farmers
encounter in Thailand are similar to those encountered in other
tropical developing countries, particularly those concerning animal
feeding but also breeding, health, etc…. This Expert Consultation
will deal with the feeding of dairy cattle. It should be a good
opportunity within this context to help increase milk production in
tropical developing countries.

The welcome address was given by Mr. S.S. Puri, Assistant
Director-General and FAO Representative for Asia and the Pacific. He
first pointed out that the Expert Consultation would not only deal
with dairy cows but also with buffaloes which are very important in
Asia, especially in India where they are more numerous than cows. He
mentioned that in Asia human diet is mainly dependent on rice/cereals
which implies an unbalanced diet. Thus, in terms of non-cereal food
diet, there is a need for increasing milk and meat production and
availability. About 40 % of the number of cows in the world are in
Asia, but they are only responsible for about 7 % of the world milk
production. The productivity of the animals is low and did not follow
the rapid increase of cereal yield in the last 20 years. For these
reasons, diets are still deficient in good quality proteins and
particularly those from milk and milk products. He also pointed out
that in the tropical areas, there is very little land still available
for pastures. For example, in India 96 % of the usable land is already
cultivated. There is a need to increase feed in quantity and quality
for milk production. Therefore this Expert Consultation on feeding is
of great importance.